Judge struck the right balance in the Rutgers spycam case

John O'Boyle/The Star-Ledger Dharun Ravi hugs his mother in the courtroom during his sentencing today at the Middlesex County Courthouse in New Brunswick.

Judge Glenn Berman got it exactly right today when he said Dharun Ravi acted not out of hate, but of "colossal insensitivity."

And the 30-day jail sentence he handed down was a relief -- far more appropriate than the minimum three years Ravi might have faced, for spying on his Rutgers roommate kissing another man.

Echoing the strong misgivings of pundits in both the Indian-American and gay communities, the judge said that while Ravi, 20, was convicted of a bias crime, he wasn't convinced he had acted out of hate. "I do not believe he hated Tyler Clementi," Berman said. "He had no reason to."

There was never clear evidence of that. Besides the short jail sentence, which may be overturned on appeal, the judge was right to give Ravi a similar punishment as his co-defendant, Molly Wei: probation and community service. He's taken full responsibility for his actions, and expressed remorse. The only thing he denies, and always has, is that he was motivated by homophobia.

For all we know, he wasn't. We've only seen proof that Ravi's actions were cruel and callous. And as Clementi's mother pointed out emotionally in the courtroom today, that doesn't differentiate him much from his peers.

"How could they all go along with such meanness?" she said of the webcam spying. "Why didn't any of them speak up and try to stop it?"

Exactly. The severity of the potential punishment here, up to 10 years in jail, elevated Ravi as the public example, while helping to absolve all the enablers in that college dorm of moral responsibility.

He was blamed by some for Clementi's suicide, though we have no way of knowing whether he was responsible for it. As Ravi's lawyer said today, “This case is contrived, is being treated and exists today as if it’s a murder case."

That's entirely unfair. The prosecutor has promised to appeal today's sentence, but we hope she thinks better of it. No good would come of forcing Ravi to spend more time behind bars. It will be remembered as a political witch hunt, not a lesson in justice.